How are tension and suspense created in The Signalman and The Red Essay

How are tension and suspense created in The Signalman and The Red Room? My aim is to analyse the way which tension suspense is built up in two Victorian stories – ‘The Red Room’ (by H.G Wells) and ‘The Signalman’ (by Charles Dickens). These two successful authors were both well known for using suspense and tension in their stories. Wells has written many classical books, which include â€Å"The Time Machine† and â€Å"War of the Worlds†. Dickens has written other illustrious books, such as â€Å"Christmas Carol†, â€Å"Great Expectations†, and â€Å"Oliver Twist†. Also in my analysis I will be briefly mentioning â€Å"The Clubfooted Grocer† (by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), â€Å"The Monkey’s Paw† (by W. Jacobs) and â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart† by (Edgar Allan Poe). All of these celebrated stories, like most Victorian stories, are short and their genre is gothic horror. Short gothic horror stories were the main form of entertainment in this time period, as there was a lack of electricity then. These stories are strongly related to Victorian beliefs, which were mainly superstition. The reason for this is that the Victorians were slightly uneducated, and didn’t know better. Ghosts, witches, supernaturalism and black magic were the main focus of these short stories. ‘The Signalman’ provides a fine example into how Victorian railways differ from those ones today. Victorian railways were extremely dangerous, and a signalman’s job was exceptionally strenuous and demanding. The story is basically about a hard-working signalman, who claims to have seen a spectre, warning him about future events. ‘The Red Room’ is more directly related to superstition. It is about a relatively young and fearless man entering a ‘haunted’ room, which apparently contains... ...the ending of ‘The Signalman’ is too abrupt, although tension was still created by the tragedy of the signalman. However, the main difference is that in ‘The Red Room’, the reader can actually decide what happens, but in ‘The Signalman’ he cannot. However despite all this, I still believe that these short stories still provide the reader with a thrilling encounter of suspense and tension. I believe that to make a story mysterious and full of suspense you need to create mystery because mystery in the present creates suspense in the future. You must not reveal everything to the reader and leave them to figure it out for themselves. It should keep the reader guessing right till the end of the story. Again, I believe that both these stories achieve this remarkably well and cover all of these points to make the stories full of mystery, suspense and tension.